Guy Who Didn't Buy The Pirate Bay Last Year, Now Pretends He's Buying It Again... From Himself

from the delusional dept

Yikes. You may recall last year there was a lot of news around the announcement that a company called Global Gaming Factory (GGF) had bought The Pirate Bay and was going to turn it into an authorized service. However, a few days later, after seeing an interview with GGF's CEO, Hans Pandeya, we expressed skepticism that the deal would ever get done. Not only did Pandeya seem clueless about pretty much every detail (while contradicting himself multiple times), he mentioned that the deal hadn't actually been approved by his shareholders. And, as more and more details came out, it became clear that the deal was totally dead in the water. There were some insider trading charges. Shares of GGF were suspended from trading multiple times. Those brought on to do the deal were bailing out, claiming Pandeya had massive credibility problems and that the company didn't actually have the money to make the purchase. Indeed, the money never showed up, Pandeya had his assets frozen by the Swedish government for unpaid taxes, and everyone forgot about GGF.

Yesterday, however, Pandeya magically popped back up -- now living in Boston, and apparently running a new company, called Business Marketing Services Inc.. He claimed that he was, once again, buying The Pirate Bay for $10 million, and the story sounded nearly identical to the one last year. It still involved Pandeya, and still involved a totally unworkable plan to make the site an authorized distributor of music. The whole thing was surprising -- and even odder if you read that link above, is that the reporter never even mentions the failed sale from last year, or Pandeya's connection to it. Even Billboard, who you would think would know better, reported on the "announcement" from Pandeya as if it were legit.

If anything, it looks like Pandeya is simply playing the same game again, except at an even more bizarre level. He's now claiming that GGF actually did buy The Pirate Bay last year (it did not) and that he's now buying it from GGF. But, of course GGF doesn't own The Pirate Bay. The Pirate Bay folks are claiming that Pandeya's claims are a blatant "fraud." Greg Sandoval has all the details in the link above. Apparently "Business Marketing Services" was an OTC penny stock company that Pandeya somehow bought, which has basically no assets. It was previously owned by a pit boss at a casino and apparently was in the business of selling calendars of women in bikinis -- not that it made much money from it. It's an old trick for a company that wants to appear as a public company but can't go public. You find some defunct company that is trading as an OTC company and "merge" with it, and suddenly you're a "public company." The method is quite frequently used in questionable ways, and it seems like this time is no different.

So, no, The Pirate Bay has not been sold. Pandeya is still making claims he cannot live up to. He's trying to buy the site from his previous company -- whose own stock trading was suspended for questionable activities -- but that company never actually bought The Pirate Bay.

Filed Under: delusions, hans pandeya
Companies: global gaming factory, the pirate bay

Delusions Of Being Jim Carey In The Truman Show

from the reality-tv-all-the-time dept

Pop culture influences different people in different ways. In fact, some psychologists psychiatrists are trying to claim that there's a new delusion out there based on the Jim Carey movie, The Truman Show. Yes, apparently (these psychiatrists claim) an increasing number of people are under the impression that their whole lives are being filmed secretly, and everyone they know and interact with is playing off a script. They psychiatrists are calling this "The Truman Show Delusion." Others claim this isn't really any different than other types of delusions, but that the Truman Show angle has just helped crystallize the scenario in some people's minds. Others point out that other movies have had similar effects, with one noting that he has a patient who believes that he's in The Matrix as well. Of course, by calling it the Truman Show Delusion, you run into the possibility (as happens all too often) that people will start blaming a pop culture movie. This is what happens with all those various technology "addictions." Next thing you know, we'll have people trying to ban The Truman Show from being shown. Yes, that's an extreme case (that won't likely happen), but it's no different than the overreaction people have in calling for things like having video games declared an official addiction. It focuses the attention on the wrong thing: the pop culture phenomenon, rather than the actual problems the individual might have that resulted in the problem.

Filed Under: delusions, jim carey, psychiatrists, truman show